For The Ring Finger Only
by Jeweled Knife
Summary: By stupidly blabbing in his very first interview, Kazahaya gets: A special job, in alternate universes, with Rikuo for a princess, a girl out for his blood,so called friends, a chatty pound of gray fluff. And lots of rings.


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STOP

These are the minimal requirements needed to read this story:

-A **basic **ability to read and understand the **English language**.

-A tolerance of things that are of the **shounen-ai **nature, and also of the **heterosexua**l nature as well as a tolerance of things that are **_not_ of the shoujo-ai **nature.

-An openness towards alternate realities and universes

-An acceptance of some, if not all, appearances of characters **belonging to CLAMP **but not necessarily pertaining to Legal/Gohou/Lawful Drug

-An acceptance of the fact that all characters/ideas that **do not **belong to me, are **CLAMP's**, but mine to play with.

-If you met the requirements of the above, proceed. If not? Well that's your choice.

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PS: bolding is fun!

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Authors Notes: Legal Drug is a new category for me, but I can't resist messing with the characters. It seems like quite a few other people can't, either. On another note: this story has nothing to do with the manga Only the Ring finger knows Something to that nature. I have no idea what the manga is about (except that it has to do with rings, I'm guessing) I have no intention to read it nor do I have any interest in it. The title did not come from the manga's title, it just fit this story and my view on rings.

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For the Ring Finger Only

- - - -

__

Prologue

- - - -

The phone rang a two minuets late; as she expected.

That Kakei. He had it coming to him.

Yuuko waited an extra five seconds and shrugged at the polished black phone ringing impatiently at her. In the kitchen she could hear Watanuki tripping over another unlucky object in his mad dash for the phone. Curses soon followed. Yuuko told him not to worry about it and then slowly picked up the sleek receiver.

"You're late." A bland fact.

"Yes, I know."

"Ohoho! Dear _friend_, I haven't heard from you in _foreve_r and now suddenly you ring me up? To what do I owe this honor?" _At least one lie in that_, thought Yuuko; the beginnings of a smirk starting to cross her lips. She could almost taste Kakei's impatience; but the man deserved it. How dare he ignore her for a good part of the year?

"Can you do me a favor?" They both knew it was not a really question. They both knew that Yuuko would agree, because they also both knew that no matter how long they (tried) to stay out of contact, their thin but complicated bond still would not be broken. How unfortunate.

"Yes, I believe I can. For a price." Yuuko twisted a thin strand of her hair around a pale finger; price already in mind.

"Agreed," Kakei agreed firmly but rather quickly. A desperate Kakei? This was interesting. Yuuko uncurled herself in her chair and listened as Kakei explained his favor. Yes, quite desperate indeed but she had to admire his concern. _If _she could really call it that. After he stated his favor, she stated her price. They agreed once more and their conversation came to a close.

"Okay, Kakei, I suppose we're done here. Are you sure that this is what you want to do? If something goes wrong….those boys will be in a _very_ tight spot."

"Dear Yuuko….Are you trying to say that you cannot do what I humbly asked?" Yuuko could image the slow and gentle smile that was creeping on the man's face. She nearly threw the phone to the other side of the room.

"Ohhoho_ho_! Charming as ever Kakei, aren't you!" She slammed down the phone. The noise made Watanuki run into the room; soap suds clinging to him for dear life. He looked around the room frantically until his eyes landed on the beaming Yuuko. Then he wondered if he had enough time to run.

"Watanuki!" Yuuko grinned, already finishing around in the drawer of the end table near the chair. "Could you do something for me? Pleaaase?"

"Do I have a choice?" ventured Watanuki, with a slight glimmer of hope. Maru and Moro, who had waken up from their nap by the chair hopped away from their mistress and danced around Watanuki in a cheerful circle.

"No no no!" they sang.

Yuuko finally took out a smoky purple key from the drawer and tossed it to Watanuki. It slipped out of his rubber gloved, sudsy hands, onto the floor. Grumbling he reached down to get the key while Yuuko explained his task.

"At the end of the hall there's a closet. Open the door with the key I gave you-" Watanuki gave Yuyko a scowl. The key did not seem to want to stay in his hands. "-and bring me back what's inside the closet. It's important that you be careful with it. I need it for something special. And it won't bite…..if I remember correctly," she winked at the boy who had finally got a grip on the key with the help of Moro. He scowled and disappeared down the hall with Maru and Moro holding each of his arms. Yuko smiled, curled up, in her chair again and slowly counted.

"3.…2...1..."

The closet door creaked opened.

"Huh….waaaagh!"

Moro and Maru giggled.

- - - -

01. The Familiar

- - - -

They had spent the entire day without an argument. A record for them, Kazahaya supposed. As he opened the new shipment of condoms he glanced over at Rikuo; silently working on the other. Normally the idea of touching the small packages that screamed "have safe sex, kids!" was enough to give Kazahaya a nosebleed, but at the moment he merely grabbed a few packs and placed them in their display case. It was almost a mechanical movement.

The reason that they hadn't argued for the day, may had something to do with the fact that Rikuo had not spoken a word other than the "When do you want these done?" question for Kakei concerning the condoms. He had even woken up Kazahaya normally--two loud knocks on the door.

Rikuo was always looked at as the strong, dark, silent type, but he was never _really _silent.

As Kazahaya soon found out, a real silent, brooding, Rikuo was worse than an insulting one. Kazahaya was frustrated, and he wanted to take it out on Rikuo but for once….he didn't have a reason to! This caused even more lovely frustration.

Then the clock struck three-thirty. Rikuo scowled at the chime from the clock; it broke the heavy silence that so far protected him throughout the day. Without another sound, he grabbed the shipment of condoms and stalked into the back room.

Which left Kazahaya to face what always happened at three-thirty on Wednesdays, alone.

Kazahaya turned to direction of the backroom and gave Rikuo the finger.

The bell on the drugstore door tinkled and Kazahaya immediately went back to pretending to be engrossed in unpacking the condoms. The sound of stiff uniform shoes clicked on the recently cleaned tiled floor reached him. Next was the smell of cheap general high school girl perfume followed closely by the usual giggles, whispers and chattering.

"Himura-kun! Where are you?" No doubt the high pitched call belonged to Fan Girl # 1, or in other words the leader of the giggling group of girls that stopped by the drug store every Wednesday at three-thirty. They specialized in ogling at Rikuo, but occasionally they turned to Kazahaya. Their main vocabulary consisted of giggles, "aww" and, "he's so hott!" They were all single.

"Hello, Kudoh-kun! Where's Himura-kun?" Now FG#1 was targeting him. Cursing Rikuo's name under his breath, Kazahaya turned away from the display case and twisted his mouth into what he hoped passed as a smile. Annoying or not, clingy girls scared him. Or girls in general.

"Rikuo? Oh...uh…he's in the back room, unpacking…c-c-…stuff." FG#1 beamed, her chubby cheeks flushed with amusement. Kazahaya's flushed for a slightly different reason.

"Kudo-kun, you're so cute! And you act _so _familiar with Himura-kun…" she giggled, and her posse did their chorus of "awws". Despite FG#1 less than perfect figure and bushy brown hair, she was semi-attractive. Her group of girls were more or less prettier than she, but all had the title of "generic Japanese high school girl" stamped onto their foreheads. Besides, all the beauty in the world could not make up for the wave of embarrassment that was constantly crashing into Kazahaya.

"Ah…"

"Anyway, it's extra important that we see Himura-Kun today!"

"Eh..? Why?"

"Because, we have someone for him to meet. Tu-chan?" FG#1 turned around and quickly skimmed the group of girls. "Where is she?" Kazahaya nearly bit his lip to keep from laughing. They wanted Rikuo to meet a _girl_? Rikuo was just as A-sexual as one could get (with a slightly perverted side which Kazahaya convinced himself was Rikuo trying to make his life miserable.) Rikuo could scare off any girl on a date.

"I think she went down that aisle," piped up the youngest and smallest member of the group. FG#6. She skipped down the supposed aisle; her dark, straightened hair bouncing.

Another FG, FG#3 joined the conversation with Kazahaya and FG#1. She gave him a big smile before poking her leader in the ribs. "Come on….tell him about….y'know!" She adjusted the butterfly clip in her dyed brown hair and continued to smile at Kazahaya.

"Oh, yeah! That's right….Kudo-kun would you mind doing an interview?"

"Huh?" The new twinge of shock cut through his previous embarrassment. The other girls around the store stopped holding side conversations and joined the conversation. He now had nine pairs of dark brown eyes, and one pair of purple contact eyes on him.

"Well," started FG#5. "There are other girls at our school that want to know more about you guys. We've don't know much about either of you and we all thought that maybe we could do an interview and put it in the school newspaper. It's in high demand….and since Himura-kun isn't here today we thought we could do you first!"

"Uh…" Okay. So he was some kind of fill in for their precious "Himura-kun"? Kazahaya's blood began to boil. Even when that idiot wasn't around he _stil_l found ways to piss him off! His annoyance must have started to show by the frowning creasing his face. FG#2 immediately took action.

"Don't get us wrong, Kudo-kun! A lot of girls really think you're super super cute! They really want to hear from you, so if you could just give us a tiny interview…?"

Flattery gets one no where. Unless that flatteree happened to be Kudo Kazahaya.

"Uh…really? I…" The group of girls looked at Kazahaya with an almost hungry glint twinkling in their mostly identical eyes. He was nearly hugging the register counter; trapped by the pack of fan girls. He swallowed a few times. "I guess I could--"

"I found Tu-chan, I found Tu-chan!" FG#6 cheered through the store. Everyone turned to the sound of her sing-song voice as she emerged skipping from the aisle, holding on to a slender pale arm. The other girls laughed at FG#6's silliness and asked them to join the fun.

Kazahaya choked on his own breath.

__

Tsukiko?

"Kudo-Kuhn? What's the matter?" FG#4's question, dripping with awed concern, went past him as he stared into the hauntingly beautiful face of Tu-chan. He gripped the edge of the counter tightly and ignored the resulting pain. This was the girl that he saw whenever he was with Rikuo….the girl that the cat turned into. Speaking suddenly became impossible.

She was not even looking at him, instead she was listening to something that the little FG#6 was saying to her. But it did not matter. Everything matched; the long, straight locks of jet black hair that all seemed to move together as she nodded to FG#6. The familiar thick bangs that framed the top of her pale white face.

Except…

Kazahaya frowned as he studied the woman or rather, _girl _more.

The Tsukiko he had seen was been older, nearly an adult. The girl he now saw was a high school teen. Yes, she had the large eyes framed with dark thick lashes and the soft looking mouth. She had the slim figure of the Tsukiko images that never left Kazahaya's mind; but without all the curves. This girl's face was rounder and her eyes did not have the familiar sad empty glaze that Tsukiko's carried. She wore no makeup and she was dressed in the regular uniform complete with green knee socks. She was, in all aspects no older than himself.

The startings of a headache began, as Kazahaya was brought back to the present with three of the girls tugging on his sleeve.

"Kudo-kun! Are you alright? Kudo-_kun_!"

"Huh?" he broke his hands free from their grip. "Yeah…" Now everyone was looking at him again, including Tsukiko.

Kazahaya mentally berated himself. _Not Tsukiko! She is **not** Tsukiko, she's…Tu-chan. Or whatever they called her!_

FG#1 broke the silence. "Well…Kudo-kun, This is Tu-chan. She's new to our school. Go ahead, introduce yourself." The others encouraged her, and Tu-chan blushed slightly. Kazahaya's heart and head were pounding.

"Hello…" she said, almost shyly. Honestly, she acted just like them! Tsukiko was always so dull and….dead. Tu-chan played with the chocolate bar in her hand as she spoke. "Call me Tu-chan….I walk past this drugstore on my way home sometimes and I saw this guy-" by now, confidence seemed to find her again. She looked up at Kazahaya. "He's really tall….you know? I mean, of _course _you know he must work here, right? I usually see you yelling at him…." The rest of the girls giggled. Kazahaya could barley breathe; he wasn't even really listening. This girl scared him more than the others, by far. She _looked _like them: the preppy uniforms, the cute little clips, the fake silver bracelets and rings….but from Kazahaya's view she might as well been colored blue.

"Anyway, since he's not here…" A hint of sadness tinged her brown eyes. In that moment she looked like…

__

But she's **NOT**

"Can you give this to him?" she held out the chocolate bar to Kazahaya with the correct amount of yen. He quickly reached for it and set it down haphazardly on the counter. Tu-chan continued. "Well, I heard he liked chocolate so that's why…..Hey listen, I really have to go," she turned to the other girls and shrugged. FG#1 glanced at the clock.

"Wow, yeah! We really _do_ have to go….so, Kudo-kun are we on for that int-"

"Oi! Kazahaya!" Kazahaya gasped but it was drowned out by the girls squealing. The deep, sarcastic tinted voice could only belong to Rikuo. The back room door opened with Rikuo stepped out, holding a new sealed box. He ignored the girls for the moment and walked over to the other boy with the box.

"Kakei wants this lipstick stocked by the end of your shift. Have fun." He turned to the girls and nodded towards them; his usual silent greeting. Then he froze. The other girls didn't see anything different, they all, including Tu-chan giggled, blushed and said their hello's. But Kazahaya saw how Rikuo's tightly gripped the shipment box before letting it slip out of his fingers. It crashed to the floor.

All the girls screamed. Kazahaya jumped. Rikuo kept staring.

"Himura-kun!" shirked FG#1 ss she scrambled to pick up the box. The other girls asked Rikuo if he was alright, including Tu-chan. She had not been looking at Rikuo after the box had dropped. Instead she was trying to comfort FG#6 who had screamed the loudest.

"I'm fine," he offered stiffly. The most words he'd really ever spoke to them, in one go. They all beamed. Kazahaya took the box from FG#1 and slid it on the counter; still feeling shook up. Rikuo, for one moment had lost it. Looking at the boy again, he could still he was far from being fine but not far from losing it again. The other girls were trying to talk to him, but Rikuo only half answered them. He went back to looking at Tu-chan through dark narrowed eyes.

This time she noticed. Kazahaya expected a blush devour her face but her it stayed pale. She did not smile. The only thing she did was nod very slightly; her hair barely moving with the motion. Rikuo's eyes widened. Kazahaya's followed suit.

"What's wrong with you two today?" complained FG#4. Kazahaya quickly spoke.

"Nothing, we're okay, really…um…we're just busy right now-"

"But is the interview still on?"

"What? Uh, I guess-"

"Wait, wait! Tu-chan didn't get to say anything to Rikuo!"

**__**

No!

But no one else thought it was a bad idea. Especially not Tu-chan. She slowly walked up to Rikuo who was now leaning against the counter. His face was a fragile blank mask and Kazahaya noted that his hands were shaking.

Tu-chan took the candy bar from the counter and held it out Rikuo. "For you," she said with a slight giggle. Kazahaya refused to look anywhere but at the candy bar; his thoughts running wild. But those thoughts suddenly came to a screeching halt when his eyes landed on the array of rings that adorned Tu-chan's fingers. Some were cute little plastic ones, others were fake looking silver ones.

It was the one on her ring finger that caught Kazahaya's eyes. Unfortunately Rikuo had already taken the candy bar out of her hand and all Kazahaya was able to see was a flash of gold and red. He muttered more curses under his breath.

"Okay! Sorry guys," she smiled at Rikuo and Kazahaya, "But we have to go. Kazahaya, meet us outside the high school at two-thirty, okay? You know, the one two blocks down from here?" Kazahaya stiffly nodded. "Good so-" she stopped suddenly. Frown lines slowly creased her forehead. "Does anyone hear that?"

Instinctively Kazahaya went still and listened. It was a thin _crrrk _sound; like something was slowly breaking. The other girls slowly nodded and looked around where they stood. Kazahaya followed the sound to the counter where he stood with Rikuo. His eyes widened instantly.

Though Rikuo looked around emotionlessly at the other frowning girls, his right hand was heavily pressed down on the counter, and small cracks were starting to form from the spot. From the way he raised his eyebrow at everyone else, Kazhaya suspected the was not aware of what he was doing.

Kazahaya resisted the urge to yell at the other boy, and instead thought as quickly as his mind allowed. As a result of frantically half-thinking, he slid his hand over Rikuo's. The other boy grunted at the new contact and turned to Kazahaya. The other boy scowled and nodded towards the cracking counter. Rikuo got the message.

"It's just the building settling. It's old and….well. It does that." Rikuo informed. The girls immediately forgot about the cracking and beamed. Rikuo was talking to them in full sentences! Oh happy day!

Kazahaya slowly started to edge his hand away from Rikuo's as to not draw attention, but the other boy relaxed his hand and turned it upwards, curling his fingers around Kazahaya's. Tightly.

__

Jerk jerk jerk jerk **jerk**! Kazahaya mentally screamed. He couldn't move his hand without making a scene. Instead he settled from muttering to Rikuo what he could do with himself and then turned back to the mass of giggling girls. Fortunately, they were not paying attention to their hands; partly because Kazahaya casually moved, trying to hide them, but mainly since they were still caught up on Rikuo.

__

Sick. Kazahaya thought. His short burst of a headache was clearing up, but he wanted the girls gone. Especially Tu-chan.

"Um…like I said….we're really busy, so-"

"Oh we understand, Kudoh-kun!" chirped FG#6. "Lets go, let's go!" Finally the girls waved their goodbyes, and drifted out of the store in a flash of green pleated skirts. Tu-Chan was the last to leave. She smiled shyly at Rikuo once more; the serious look that she had given him previously, now gone. Kazahaya bit the inside of his cheek to keep from wincing as Rikuo squeezed his fingers tighter.

"See you again!" She left. Rikuo held Kazahaya's hand for a few more seconds before relaxing his own fingers. Kazahaya snatched his hand away, rubbing his red fingers.

"You…you _jerk_! What was that all about; what-" he stopped when he realized that Rikuo was silently staring at him. The awkwardness of their situation was now catching up. Kazahaya tried again, still angry at Rikuo but he struggled to force his temper and blush down.

"Was Tu-chan….? Did You…?" he tried to start, through clenched teeth. Rikuo wordlessly turned away from Kazahaya and walked towards the store's entrance door.

"Fine! Ignore me, you bas-!" Rikuo stalked out of the drugstore without turning back. "Rikuo!" Kazahaya slammed his fist down on the counter, regretting it immediately after pain shot through his still tender fingers.

Kakei chose that moment to enter the store. "Kudo-kun," he called out warmly. Kazahaya found it in himself to smile weakly while he rubbed his sore hand. "I need to see you about another job….where's Rikou? I thought he was here with you," Kazahaya scowled, spitting out every word.

"That _jerk_ just walked _right out _on me! He's been in a bad mood _all day _and _then _when I try to _talk _to him he--" Kakei held out up his hand.

"Calm down, Kudo-kun. We'll talk about Rikuo too, if you'd like. I know why he's been upset. Come with me; the job is important….and you _will_ need Rikuo. When he comes back you'll have to brief him on it, understood?" Kakei left no room for any sort of argument.

"Yes, Kakei-san," muttered Kazahaya. His thoughts of Tu-chan were temporarily pushed back in his mind; not ignored, but only overlooked as the excitement of a new job and extra money took his attention.

If he _would_ have paid closer attention, however, he would not have missed the flicker of worry that grazed Kakei's face as he glanced outside the store window; before leading Kazahaya out of the store.

- - - -

01. . . End.

- - - -

Wow I've actually completed a chapter of something to be posted on This is sadly a great accomplishment for me. Anyway, how'd I do? I really wanted to play around with Kazahaya's angry personality more (and the amusement we all get from it) but I couldn't in this chapter. Sorry if he doesn't seem too Kazahaya-ish. And Rikuo is an extremely hard character to write. . Hopefully I'll get a feel for them more.

On another note, flames are allowed; though I don't think I did anything daring/flame-worthy in this chapter. Maybe? I haven't written in a long time so I'm going to use that as my fake excuse if this is total crap. (And if it is, I'd like to know) If you hate the fan girls, don't worry, they're not my favorites either. And they won't stick around. They are _not _there to make fun the stereotypical fan girl (though…I do know some (lovely) people who are like that -) they are just something I decided to have.

Plus: Tu-chan is **_not_** a **_Mary-Sue_**. You may have to read more to see this, but turst me. I've had my experience with those things. She is not one. You can like her, you can hate her, she won't care. Personally, neither will I; but she **_is_** a pain since I have to come up with the reasons on why she does stuffs.

Review if you wish, there are tons more experienced LG writers out there--I **_know_** I need the critique.

Adios!

(Serenity)


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